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The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in the July 1904 issue of The Strand magazine in the United Kingdom and in the October 29, 1904 issue of Collier's magazine in the United States. It was republished in 1905 as part of the anthology The Return of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, Inspector Stanley HopkinsThe character of Inspector Stanley Hopkins is introduced in "The Adventure of Black Peter" (first published in February 1904). He also appears in "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" (first published in September 1904). He is referred to, but does not appear, in "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter" (first published in August 1904). of Scotland Yard asks the brilliant consulting detective Sherlock Holmes to help him investigate a mysterious case of murder. The murder victim was a young man named Willoughby Smith who had been the secretary to an elderly invalid known as Professor Coram. Smith shared a house with the Professor and two female servants. One of those servants found Smith, fatally wounded but not yet dead, after he had been stabbed in the neck with a small knife. A pair of woman's pince-nez spectacles were later discovered in Smith's hand. Curiously, since Professor Coram is obviously male, Smith's last words were, "The professor - it was she". "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" has been adapted for radio, film and television. Plot Late one stormy night in November 1894, Inspector Stanley Hopkins of Scotland Yard arrives at the Baker Street apartment which Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson share. Hopkins has come to ask for Holmes' help in the investigation of the mysterious death of a young man named Willoughby Smith. Willoughby Smith was found dead earlier that day at a large house called Yoxley Old Place near the town of Chatham in Kent. Yoxley Old Place is the home of an elderly man known as Professor Coram. The Professor is an elderly man who is in very poor health. He rarely gets out of bed before noon and relies on his gardener, Mortimer, to dress him. Although he can walk with the aid of a stick, Professor Coram is often pushed around in a wheelchair by the gardener. Mortimer lives in a small cottage on the grounds of Yoxley Old Place. Two female servants, Mrs. Marker the housekeeper and Susan Tarlton the maid, live inside the house. The Professor is writing a scholarly book about early Christianity in Egypt and Syria. For that reason, he has employed a secretary to help him. He had employed two other secretaries for a short time before Willoughby Smith came to work for him. Willoughby Smith lived in Yoxley Old Place with the Professor, Mrs. Marker and Susan Tarlton. The inhabitants of Yoxley Old Place are somewhat reclusive. Weeks have passed without any of them leaving its grounds. There is however, an entrance to the house's garden near the main London to Chatham road. The garden gate can be opened easily, meaning that anyone can come in. It is believed that the murderer entered through this garden gate. Some time between eleven o'clock and noon, Susan Tarlton heard Willoughby Smith enter the Professor's study. Shortly afterwards, she heard a strange cry which she says could have been made by either a man or a woman. She entered the room and saw Willoughby Smith on the floor. He had been stabbed in the neck with a small knife, intended for cutting sealing wax, taken from the old-fashioned writing set on the Professor's desk. Willoughby Smith was not yet dead when Susan Tarlton came into the room. She heard him say, "The professor - it was she", before he died. Mrs. Marker arrived soon afterwards. Professor Coram says that he heard the scream but was still in bed when Willoughny Smith died. Mrs. Marker corroborates his story. Inspector Hopkins found indistinct footprints on a small strip of grass between the path which leads from the garden gate to the house and the flowerbeds. It is impossible to tell if the tracks were left by a person who was coming or going. No footprints were left on the floor, lined with coconut matting, of the corridor which leads from the house's back door to the Professor's study. There is little furniture in the study except for a large writing desk. The desk has drawers which are kept unlocked because there is nothing important in them. It also has a cabinet which is kept locked because the Professor keeps his important papers in it. The Professor says that nothing was stolen. An important clue was found in Willoughby Smith's right hand, a pair of golden pince-nez spectacles with a broken black silk cord hanging from them. The glasses could not have belonged to Willoughby Smith because he had excellent eyesight. Therefore, they must have been taken from the killer during a struggle. Holmes examines the pince-nez and tries to look through it. He is then able to give Inspector Hopkins a detailed description of the suspect. The delicate pince-nez obviously belongs to a woman. The glasses are handsomely mounted in solid gold, indicating that their owner is a person of refinement who is always well dressed. It can also be observed that the glasses belong to a woman whose nose is very broad at the base, whose eyes are very close together and whose eyesight is very poor. The following morning, Holmes and Watson travel to Yoxley Old Place with Inspector Hopkins. Holmes is shown the narrow strip of grass along which Hopkins believes that the killer walked when going into and leaving the house. Holmes finds it remarkable that the murderer managed to stay on the narrow strip of grass and avoided leaving any more distinct footprints by not stepping on the path or flowerbed on either side of it In the study, Holmes looks at the cabinet on the Professor's writing desk. He notices a scratch on the lock and in the varnish to the right of it. Mrs. Marker says that the scratch was not there the previous morning and that the Professor keeps the only key to the cabinet on his watch chain. Holmes deduces that Smith surprised the intruder, who was trying to open the cabinet. He grabbed her. She reached for the nearest thing she could get to strike him so that he would let her go. That object happened to be a knife. She obviously did not come to the house planning to commit murder because she did not bring a weapon with her. Susan Tarlton says that she did not see the killer leave, which means that she must have come out through the same door through which she entered. On leaving the study, Holmes sees that the two corridors which lead out from it, the one which leads to the garden and one which leads only to the Professor's bedroom, both have floors lined with coconut matting. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go into Professor Coram's bedroom. The bedroom is a large one. Its walls are lined with bookcases, most of which have more book piled up in front of them. The Professor is in bed and is smoking a cigarette. It is obvious that the Professor smokes a lot. The room smells of stale tobacco smoke. The Professor's white mustache and beard are stained yellow around his mouth and his fingers are stained yellow too. Watson describes the Professor as, "speaking well-chosen English with a curious mincing accent". The Professor offers Holmes an Egyptian cigarette from a box. While pacing around the room, Holmes smokes four of the Egyptian cigarettes in quick succession and continues to smoke more. Holmes asks Professor Coram what Willoughby Smith's last words, "The professor - it was she", might have meant. Professor Coram says that Willoughby Smith may have really made some meaningless sounds before he died and that Susan Tarlton tried to make sense of them. The Professor goes on to say that Smith's death was probably not murder but an accident or suicide brought about as a result of "some affair of the heart". The Professor says that the pince-nez may have been a memento of a former lover. When asked what is in the cabinet in his writing desk, the Professor says that it contains nothing of any interest to any thief. It just contains some papers which are important to him, including letters from his "poor wife". Professor Coram offers Holmes the key to the cabinet and says that he can look for himself. Holmes says that is not necessary. Before Holmes and Watson leave the room, Holmes says that they will return at two o'clock that afternoon, after the Professor has eaten his lunch. Having sought out Mrs. Marker again, Holmes asks her if the Professor's heavy smoking means that he has little appetite. Mrs. Marker tells him that is not really the case. Although Mrs. Marker has hardly eaten anything since Willoughby Smith was found dead, the Professor had a very large breakfast that morning and has ordered a large dish of cutlets for lunch. Inspector Hopkins says that some children in Chatham have reported seeing a strange woman whose description matched the one Holmes gave of the murder suspect. At lunch, Susan Tarlton tells Holmes that Willoughby Smith went out the previous morning and returned about thirty minutes before he was killed. At two o'clock, Holmes and Watson return to Professor Coram's bedroom with Inspector Hopkins. The Professor is now out of bed, dressed and sitting in an armchair. Watson notices that the Professor has eaten all of his large lunch and his plate is empty. The Professor offers Holmes another Egyptian cigarette. Holmes knocks over the cigarette box. After all the cigarettes have been picked up from the floor, Holmes announces that he has solved the mystery. He says that, having lost her glasses, the killer went down the wrong corridor with a coconut matting floor. Having realized her mistake, she had no choice but to go into the Professor's bedroom and is still there. Holmes points to a bookcase in the corner of the room where he says that the woman is still hiding. A voice with a foreign accent says, "You are right! I am here." A secret door opens, a woman emerges from behind the bookcase and sits on the bed. Holmes and Watson notice that she does not look well. The woman says that her name is Anna and that she is Professor Coram's wife. They are both Russians and the Professor's real first name is Sergius. In Russia, they had belonged to a revolutionary organization called the Brotherhood. After members of the Brotherhood were blamed for the murder of a police officer, Sergius managed to save himself by reporting the other members of the organization, including his wife, to the authorities. Some of them were executed, others, including Anna, were sent to Siberia. Sergius was given a large reward for the information which he provided and escaped to England. Anna says that one revolutionary named Alexis, whom she describes as the "friend of my heart", is still being kept prisoner in Siberia and working in a salt mine. This is unjust because Alexis played no part in the murder of the police officer. He had already completely renounced violence and had written to Anna, asking her to do the same. Anna also wrote in her diary about the vows that she and Alexis made to renounce violence. Anna knows that her husband kept and read her diary because he sent her a letter in which he mockingly quoted from it while she was imprisoned in Siberia. If the diary and letters were passed on to the Russian authorities, Alexis could be freed on the evidence they provided. After Anna was released from prison in Siberia, she came to England. She hired a private detective, the man who became the second of Professor Coram's three secretaries. The detective found Anna's diary and letters which Alexis wrote to her in the cabinet of Professor Coram's writing desk. He had a copy made of the key to the cabinet and gave it to Anna, along with a plan of Yoxley Old Place. Holmes later explains that he knew that the woman had her own key to the cabinet because he did not see any traces of varnish on the Professors key which would have been left by the scratching at the cabinet door. After having arrived in Chatham, Anna asked a young man the way to Professor Coram's house. She did not know that the young man was the Professor's secretary Willoughby Smith. When he returned home, Smith told the Professor that a woman had been asking for him. With his dying words, Smith had wanted the message to be sent on to Professor Coram that the killer was the same woman who had been asking about the Professor earlier. As Holmes had deduced, Willoughby Smith surprised Anna in the study. During a struggle, he took her pince-nez spectacles. Anna had not intended to kill Willoughby Smith and did not know that she object she struck him with was a knife. After finding herself in her husband's bedroom, Anna forced him to shelter her, threatening to report him to the Brotherhood if he did not. The Professor took all his meals in his room and arranged to have enough food for two people to be brought to him. It had been arranged that Anna would escape that night after Holmes, Watson, Inspector Hopkins and the other police officers had left. Anna tells Holmes to take the letters and diary which will free Alexis to the Russian embassy before saying, "These are my last words". Holmes runs over and takes a small poison bottle from her hand. Anna says that it is too late to save her life because she took the poison before she came out from behind the bookcase. Holmes later explains that he knew that the killer was still inside the house because her very poor eyesight meant that, without her glasses, it would have been impossible for her to keep to the narrow strip of grass while leaving through the garden. The loss of her glasses also made it likely that she would confuse the two coconut matting lined corridors and end up in the Professor's bedroom. Holmes looked around the bedroom for a possible hiding place. He noticed that only one bookcase did not have more books piled up in front of it. The reason why Holmes smoked so many of the Professor's Egyptian cigarettes was so that he could drop a large amount of cigarette ash in front of that bookcase. After he deliberately knocked over the cigarette box and picked up the cigarettes from the floor, Holmes noticed that the ash in front of the bookcase had been disturbed when the woman hiding behind it came out to eat lunch. After returning to London, Holmes takes the letters and diary which will free Alexis to the Russian embassy. Adaptations "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" was adapted as a short British silent movie, starring Ellie Norwood as Holmes, which was released in 1922. The third episode of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the fourth and final Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett, is an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez". The episode also stars Charles Gray as Mycroft HolmesThe character of Sherlock Holmes' brother Mycroft only appears in three of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fifty-six canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" (1893), "The Final Problem" (1893) and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (1908). However, Mycroft Holmes appears in four episodes of the Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series, "The Greek Interpreter" (1985), "The Bruce-Partington Plans" (1988), "The Golden Pince-Nez" (1994) and "THe Mazarin Stone" (1994). and features Nigel Planer as Inspector Hopkins and Frank Finlay as Inspector Coram. It was first shown on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on March 21, 1994. The setting is changed from the year 1894 to the early 20th century. The most obvious differences from the original short story are the absence of Watson and the presence of Sherlock Holmes' brother Mycroft. It is Mycroft who first realizes that the killer could not have left the house. He deliberately spills some of his snuff in front of one of the bookcases in order to show her tracks. The names Sergius and Alexis are changed to the correct Russian forms of Sergei and Alexei. Alexei is said to be Anna's brother. At the end of the episode, a member of the Brotherhood takes revenge on Professor Coram by killing him. A red herring is introduced into the story when a diary entry which Willoughby Smith wrote on the day before he was killed is found. It reads, "Abbey, seven-thirty". Mycroft discovers that this refers to a woman named Abigail Crosby, a leader of the Suffragette movement who wears pince-nez spectacles. Abigail Crosby had been a former lover of Willoughby Smith and argued with him on the night before he died. A faithful radio adaptation of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez", starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, first aired on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1993. A few hints are dropped early in the adaptation that Professor Coram is really a Russian. The Professor smokes Russian cigarettes, rather than Egyptian ones. Holmes notices several works of Russian literature on the Professor's bookshelves, including the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Footnotes External links *Text of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" on Wikisource. *Public domain audiobook of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" on YouTube: **Part 1. **Part 2. *"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" on Baker Street wiki. Category:Detective Category:Mystery Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic